Sorry about the absence of weekly updates! Here’s one with a short video displaying the Splicing Machine:

As you can see in the video:

Each Norn has 8 cosmetic genes, each one impacting the appearance of the Norn. Changing the 1st one will have an impact on the belly, the 2nd one on the pattern the Norn has and so on.

There are 12 possible genes

There are 4 body types, each gene corresponds to one of them. The body of the Norn is an “average” created from these genes. See for example how the body shape changed when I replaced Bananou’s genes with Feral genes.

Two Norns with the same genes will look the same in the Splicing Machine as the preview shows you how the Norn should look with these genes. That’s why Bananou and Brugno seem similar.

However, once spliced they can have small differences even with the same genes. If you look carefully, in-game Bananou has 2 white spots on the hips, while Brugno has a white mark on the right arm.

The pattern on Norn fur is defined by genes #2 and #3, but the color for these patterns are defined by genes #5 and #6.

Time required for splicing depends on the number of genes modified (and the type of these genes).